The Battered Suitcase
80 years after the war against Japan, remembrance of it in Britain, India and Japan is complex. And new discoveries are being made by the descendants of those who were there.
As people back home partied in the streets, celebrating victory in Europe in May 1945, war wasn鈥檛 over for the many thousands of soldiers and civilians on the Asian front. For those in Japanese prison camps, or fighting in distant jungles, it wasn鈥檛 always over on the day Japan announced its unconditional surrender on August 15th.
Episode 3 of The Second Map traces the complex remembrance of the Second World War on the Asian Front in Britain, India, and Japan 80 years after it ended. We hear of the trauma of those who lived as prisoners and how they coped with life once back in Britain. And we learn how the horrors of war returned to veterans in their nightmares, and speak to descendants across Britain who are making new discoveries today about what their family members did in the war on the Asian Front.
Creator, Writer and Presenter: Kavita Puri
Series Producer: Ellie House
Script Editor: Ant Adeane
Sound Designer: James Beard
Series Editor: Matt Willis
Production Coordinators: Sabine Scherek, Maria Ogundele
Original music: Felix Taylor
Archive Curator: Tariq Hussain
Voice actor: Bhasker Patel
With thanks to Dr Diya Gupta, Dr Vikki Hawkins, Dr Peter Johnston, Professor Rana Mitter and Tejpal Singh Ralmill.
The original interview with Maurice Naylor was by Monica Whitlock, for Witness History.
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